ALL BLACK TOURS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22355, 28 February 1936, Page 5

ALL BLACK TOURS

LATEST TEAM'S RECORD COMPARISON IN STATISTICS FIXTURE LISTS VARIED Statistics, one is glad to think, do not compel so much attention in Rugby 1 foothall as in some or the other great 1 national games—certainly not in Great c Britain, says the Rugby writer of the i: London Times. That is not to say there t is not interest or meaning at all in an analysis of the scoring and selections s of players in such a tour as that re- j cently concluded by the New Zea- j landers. _ The latest New Zealand record reads: ( Matches played, 28; won, 24; drawn, ,j 1; lost, 3. Points scored: For, 431; j against, 180. _ This may compare unfavouraMy with * the records of the two previous teams, but it is none the less a record of which any touring side might be proud, especially if one takes into account, ® what New Zealanders at any rate re- » gard as a fact, the all-round improvement in. British Rugby, which allowed j the invader fewer runaway victories, and consequently less relaxation, than in the past. t Earlier Tours This article, however, is statistical, J not argumentative, and'lt is enough to temper the figures with the suggestion t that they may not mean quite all they j appear?to imply. The original All Blacks, J it is hardly necessary to state, lost only one of their 33 matches, the famous game with Wales at Cardiff in De- - cember, 1905, but it also was a fact i that Scotland, Newport, Cardiff and } Swansea, whose line they never crossed, * ran them desperately close. The second All Blacks, in 1924-25, thinking no doubt of the strain of an J overcrowded four months, reduced their j fixture list to 30, and incidentally, had jno long journeys to Scotland. Indeed, • they played only 28 matches, the same number as J. E. Manchester's side, in j Great Britain, the other two being | against France and Paris, which they won easilv enough at the very end of the tour. The original All Blacks scored a total of 868 points to 47 in 33 games and the second All Blacks 721 points to 112 in 30 games. The fixture lists have been varied not only in number but in name, strength and general significance. The fixtures of j 1905-6, for instance, were divided into : 5 internationals (including France), 10 i English counties (including the Midlands), 12 English clubs (including Ox- : ford and Cambridge and sides ranging ; from West Hartlepool, in the north, to Devonport Albion,, at its prime, in the south-west, and from Blackheath and Richmond, in London, to Bristol and Gloucester, in the west country), one Welsh county, three Welsh clubs, one Scottish combined side (West of Scotland), and one Irish province (Munster) • The All Blacks of 1924-25 played four international matches (including France). The rest of the fixture list was made up of 14 English counties, three English clubs (Leicester, Oxford and Cambridge), London (twice), Combined Services, four Welsh clubs, Ulster and Paris. Altered Programme The programme altered further and considerably for the third All Blacks. There were four international matches (France inevitably being left matches against pairs or groups of English counties (London this time having become "London Counties"), the usual games with Oxford and Cambridge and the Combined Services, three matches with groups of clubs in Scotland (Glasgow and Edinburgh, the South and the North), two pairs of Welsh clubs, and one group called Mid-District, four individual Welsh clubs, and Ulster, or Northern Ireland. In their 28 matches the New Zealanders scored 36 goals, 11 dropped goals, 16 penalty goals, one goal from a mark, and 52 tries (431 points), and their opponents 17 goals, two dropped goals, 11 penalty goals, and 18 tries (180 points). The New Zealanders crossed the goalline as follows: —Seven times at Abertillery and Cambridge; six times at Devonport and Aberdare; five times at Bristol and Birkenhead; four times at Llanelly, Cardiff, Boscoinbe, Leicester, and against Scotland at Murrayfleld; three times at Coventry, Bradford, Twickenham (in the first match with London Counties), against Ireland in Dublin, and at Aberavon; twice at GosI forth, Hawick, Aldershot, Oxford, j against Wales at Cardiff, and in the re--1 turn match with London Counties at Twickenham; once at Swansea —the first j defeat —Glasgow, Newport, Aberdeen j and Belfast —the only draw; no try or ! any other points were scored against | England. ! Three matches, all in Scotland, were i won by means of penalty goals—at i Hawick, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. The ; North of Scotland, at Aberdeen, actually i scored two tries to one, and yet lost by J 12 points to six, Gilbert landing three penalty goals. At Newport, where the Welsh club scored-a goal to a try, the All Blacks built up their score of 17 points by means of two dropped goals, one | penalty goal, one goal from a mark and one try. | In the match with London ! Counties 18 of the New Zealanders' 24 1 points came from three dropped goals I and two penalty goals. 'ln the opening I match at Devonport Gilbert, in addition : to converting two of the six tries, con- | triblited a dropped goal and three i penalty goals. Subdivision ofi Points i The scoring in points may be sub- | divided as follows:—In the four interi national matches, one of which was lost I by a point and the other by 13, New i Zealand scored a total of 47 points to 43. Two penalty goals helped to swell the score of 17 points to nine against Ireland. New Zealand won each of the 10 matches with pairs or groups of English counties and scored a total of 177 points to 45. The total of 45 points to 14 in the matches with Oxford and Cambridge was deceptive, the former having been beaten bv only a point and the latter by a margin of 20. Altogether three •'sides ran the New Zealanders to a point—Oxford, the Combined Services . and the side made up of Glasgow and Edinburgh clubs Ulster was the only side to force a draw at three points all. In the three games in Scotland other than the international Now Zealand scored no .more than 32 points to 22. By contrast, and excepting the match with Wales, the New Zealanders did remarkably well in the Principality. In the three games with pairs or groups of clubs—second class in the case of tho new fixture, Mid-District—the All Blacks scored a total of 75 points to 19. In the matches with the four big Welsh clubs, which included the defeat at Swansea by 11 points to three, the New Zealanders scored 66 points to 29.